In connection with administration of medicines ready for use two main groups of dosage forms or preparations can be identified. The largest group consists of medicines, known as dosed medicines. Examples of such preparations are tablets, capsules, injection ampoules and others, where each preparation unit contains a predetermined dose of the active medical substance. It can be said that one of the great advantages of this form of preparation is that the dosing of the medicine is built into the dosage form. Naturally, this puts high demands on what concerns the highest variation permitted of medicine content in the separate preparation units.
The other group of medicines consists of non-dosed medicines. Dosage forms as ointments, mixtures, powders, granulates, large volume parenterals and others belong to this group. From such dosage forms the quantity corresponding to the dose required in a specific case is taken out on each occasion of medicine administration. The reason why non-dosed forms are used is that in many cases the exact dose quantity of active medical substance required for administration to the patient can not be predicted.
The limit between dosed and non-dosed medicines is not clearly defined. Thus, packages of single doses of non-dosed medicine can be found.
A frequent problem with administration of a medicine is that the dose quantity required for administration to a certain patient is known, but the choice of doses, in the form of tablets or capsules for example, is relatively limited. Frequently, a tablet has to be broken in order to divide the original dose into halves or even into quarters. Despite this dividing up of the dose, uncertainty may still remain with regard to dose accuracy, i.e. the smallest possible effective dose. This problem is not limited to solid, essentially water-free preparations solely, but there is also an obvious need for exact adjustment of a medicine dose in a dissolved or dispersed form.
Through the present invention, this inconvenience is now eliminated to a large extent.